Trying to help classrooms that use the Sinama language for mother tongue multi-lingual education can be a very educating experience in itself. Take for instance the newly released fruit and vegetable poster for the Sinama language. We based the poster off of a children’s song that is a part of our Sinama Children’s Song App. The song was developed for a classroom of Sama children who can trace their roots back to Siasi, Sulu. These are the words that I have learned for these fruits, they are the words used by my wife and they are also used by both children and adults in the community. Take a look at the version made with this community in mind:

Maybe your first objection starts at the title. Many might object. After all Bungang-Kahuy is easily recognized as the Tausug for fruits. The Sinama-English dictionary has it listed as a loaned word and the fact that it is the word used in this Mindanao Sama community which has grown up away from Sulu and direct Tausug influence seems to hint that the word has been used in Sinama for quite some time. The poster is developed for a specific classroom in mind and so we have kept the terms and title that they need.

Major dialect differences can also be observed in some of the names for the fruits. Due to the differences between Sama Siasi and Sama Dilaut we had to develop a specific poster for the Sama Dilaut dialect:

On this poster you can see that “Mampallam” for mango was changed to “Mangga”. Multiple language consultants explained that a ripe mango is “Mangga” and a green mango is “Mampallam”. This is at least true for the Sama Dilaut of Davao. It is possible that the reason for this is that generally Sama would prefer to eat mango while it is unripe and are less familiar with it when ripe and so they are using the word common in other languages. Also the word “Timun” becomes “Biyayung” a completely new word to me not yet included in the Sinama-English dictionary. “Timun” for these Sama Dilaut is cantelope. The title for this new poster which will also be used in specific classrooms in Davao is “Buwa’-Tinanom maka Sayul.”

These slight changes among dialects make material development for Sinama languages quite a challenge. We however remain committed to making useful educational tools for Sama classrooms. Therefore our download link will give you a zip file for both variants of the poster. If your Sinama has different variants than what is represented in the two posters above, please feel free to contact us and we can prepare the image file for your specific Sinama.